§ 38. PAcnoMirs aj^d the cloisiek life. 195
Even before his death, Sjmeon enjoyed the unLouralcd ad miration of Christians and lieatliens, of the common people, ot the kings of Persia, and of the emperors Theodosius II., Leo, and Marcian, who begged liis blessing and liis counsel l!^o wonder, that, with all his renowned humilitj, he had to struggle with the temptations of spiritual pride. Once an angel appeared to him in a vision, with a chariot of fire, to convev him, like Elijah, to heaven, because the blessed spirits longed for him. He was already stepping into the chariot with his right foot, which on this occasion he sprained (as Jacob his thigh), when the phantom of Satan was chased away by the sign of the cross. Perhaps this incident, which the Acta Sanctorum gives, was afterward invented, to account for his sore, and to illustrate the danger of self-conceit. Hence also the pious monk ISTilus, with good reason, reminded the ostentatious pillar saints of the proverb : " He that exalteth himself' shall be abased." *
Of the later stylites the most distinguished were Daniel (f 490), in the vicinity of Constantinople, and Symeon the younger (f 592), in Syria. The latter is said to have Sf)ent sixty-eight years on a pillar. In the East this form of sanctity perpetuated itself, though only in exceptional cases, down to the twelfth century. The West, so far as we know, affords but one example of a stylite, who, according to Gregory of Tours, lived a long time on a pillar near Treves, but came down at the command of the bishop, and entered a neighboring cloister.
§ 38. Panhomius and the Cloister Life.
On St. Pachomius we have a biography composed soon after his death by a monk of Tabennse, and scattered accounts in Palladius, Jeromk (Regula Pachoraii, Latine reddita, 0pp. Hieron. ed. Vallarsi, torn. ii. p. 50 sqq.), Ecfinus, Sozomen, &c. Comp. Tillemont, torn. vii. p, 167-235, and the Vit. Sanct. sub Maj. 14.
Though the strictly solitary life long continued in use, and
' Ep ii. 114 ; cited in Gieseler, ii. 2, p. 246, note 47 (Edinb. Engl. ed. ii. p. IS note 47), and in Neander.
196 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-51)0,
to this day appears here and there in the Greek and Eoman churches, yet from the middle of the fourth centm-y monasti cism began to assume in general the form of the cloister life, aa incurring less risk, being available for both sexes, and being profitable to the church, Anthony himself gave warning, as we have already observed, against the danger of entire isolation, by referring to the proverb : " Woe to him that is alone," To many of the most eminent ascetics anchoretism was a stepping stone to the ccenobite life ; to others it was the goal of coenobitism, and the last and highest round on the ladder of perfection.
The founder of this social monachism was PACHo>nus, a contemporary of Anthony, like him an Egyptian, and little below him in renown among the ancients. He was born about 292, of heathen parents, in the Upper Thebaid, served as a soldier in the army of the tyrant Maximin on the expedition against Constantino and Licinius, and was, with his comrades, so kindly ti'eated by the Christians at Thebes, that he was won to the Christian faith, and, after his discharge from the military service, received baptism. Then, in 313, he visited the aged hermit Palemon, to learn from him the way to perfection. The saint showed him the difficulties of the anchorite life : " Many," said he, " have come hither from disgust with the world, and had no perseverance, Kemember, my son, my food consists only of bread and salt ; I drink no wine, take no oil, spend half the night awake, singing psalms and meditating on the Scriptures, and sometimes pass the whole night without sleep." Pachomius was astounded, but not discouraged, and spent sev eral years with this man as a pupil.
In the year 325 he was directed by an angel, in a vision, to establish on the island of Tabennae, in the Nile, in Upper E<''ypt, a society of monks, which in a short time became so strong that even before his death (348) it numbered eight or nine cloisters in the Thebaid, and throe thousand (according to some, seven thousand), and, a century later, fifty thousand members. The mode of life ^vas fixed by a strict rule of Pachomius, which, according to a later legend, an angel conimu-